2014.04.27 - Danger Room Level: Apocalypse
"This is a rare opportunity for us," Cyclops says as he stands opposite a collection of his teammates in the center of the presently blank Danger Room. "We train daily, nightly--''obsessively'', in every situation that we can imagine, all because we rarely know what we'll be up against the next time we're called to serve," he continues, pacing across the tiled floor with his hands loosely clasped behind his back. He's takes care to catch each one of his teammates' eyes as he passes them. "We push ourselves - some of us to the point of breaking - to learn how to win fights we might not ever have to fight, and we sometimes still find ourselves up against enemies that we never could have dreamt of, because that's how insane our world is." His voice - full as it is of steel and certainty - never wavers, even thoughts of past tribulations flit through his memory. "But today, thanks to Cable -" He pauses to turn, look and gesture towards the control room. "- we have the chance to begin preparing for a battle that we know is coming, against a foe who would, under less fortuitous circumstances, be all but guaranteed to take us off-guard and back us into a corner when he inevitably makes his move." He stops again, this time to fold his arms over his chest and slowly exhale. "Today, we're going to be conducting the first of what will be many, many training scenarios against the mutant tyrant En Sabah Nur, also known as Apocalypse," he then says. "He's known and/or believed to be sleeping somewhere in the world, but complicating matters significantly--he isn't unique. There is another Apocalypse, and after turning his own Earth into a barren wasteland, he has been routed to ours. Some of you might know some of these things, and some might know none, or even all of them; regardless, there's one thing above all the others that I want all of you to leave here knowing: Apocalypse has the potential to be as dangerous as anyone or anything that the X-Men have ever faced, but if we trust one another - if we use this chance to prepare for the war that will one day find us - we will overcome him." Once that's all said, Scott again turns towards the control room, and this time he gives the man at the controls a firm nod. Sam Guthrie, aka Cannonball, is suited up like an x-man, instead of in his SHIELD uniform. Despite being on a non-mutant based team, of late, he sure does turn up around the X-mansion a lot, visiting his brother, or helping out with protecting mutant interests. The suit's looking gooood, too, little too tight around the thighs, maybe, but nice and snug everywhere else. He has his goggles over his face already, his straw-hair flopping in his face. "Are we going to get any /tips/, Summers? Like...no water after midnight?" It's not often that Josie, aka Undine, gets to train with the teachers. Sure, they come along for Young X-men training scenarios sometimes, but in this case she was tagged in and brought along as the only Young X-Man to join. (Likely she was the only one available at the time.) She doesn't look the slightest bit nervous, though, standing confidently in her X-uniform as she listens to Cyclops give the briefing. She has a bit of a grin and nods as Cyclops says they will overcome Apocalypse. Nate already knows everything he needs to know about Apocalypse. Or at least that is what he says! It is true he told at least some of the X-Men about the ancient mutant that destroyed his home world. He scowls at the speech. But it is mostly because he has been in an extraordinarily bad mood since he knew about Apocalypse's arrival, not because he is particularly annoyed at Cyclops. "Just get this crap started," he mutters gruffly. Rumors about Apocalypse rumbled through the school for a while. Cable confirmed them with the talks he shared with Logan. Now he was standing in the Danger Room listening to Cyclops make a speach. Apocalypse was an enemy that was going to over power them at many turns. The talks with Cable made it sound like their chances of beating Apocalypse were slim without training. With training they were slightly better. Every little bit counted, especially in this situation. "Cyclops's right," he paused to wait for jaws to drop and for the next sign of the Apocalypse to fall into place after admitting that one. "Should be mandatory rounds of trainin' fer everyone in this situation. I ain't sayin' that lightly or 'cause I'm overreactin'. Cable's one of the toughest members in these walls. He's honest too. If he says Apocalypse is gonna be a hell of a war then guess that makes us all soldiers. I don't like it. But bein' prepared in this fight means avoidin' a future that makes all the crap in this world look tame," Logan's blue eyes darted over to everyone in the room. Be they a new member or a veterean he wanted to be sure they knew what Apocalypse meant even if it was a simplified cliff notes version. Nothing he said was light as it carried the same steeliness and seriousness as Scott's voice with dashes of Logan's own flare. Within the control room, Cable gives a salute with his organic hand. The metal one is currently fused heavily into the console of the Danger Room, although that particular aspect isn't visible to those outside. He listens to Scott, and a touch of a frown flows on his scarred features. A speech of hope. How many men did he say these words to? How many, that ended up dead on the ground? A list he has yet to forget. At the nod, he begins to tap on the buttons of the control panel, and suddenly the Danger Room plunges into absolute darkness. And then, the smell of burnt metal and polluted air. Slowly, as if the shadows were a parting veil, it reveals a shattered urban environment. Ancient skyscrapers, crumbling with time, stab at the crimson-black sky overhead like dull daggers. Mountains in the distance have a silver sheen, like a shell. Rusted cars and craters litter all around, and there's the sound of battle in all directions. Horrific machines and armor-clad mutants appear to be attacking resistance fighters, some human, and some powered. And they are winning. But of note is the sudden pressure of an incredible power. Descending like a rocket, the massive form of En Sabah Nur lands in a crouch about five meters from the group, incredible burst of kinetic energy roaring out, sending debris and buffeting force in all directions. Massive wings slowly hiss out plasma, before closing into his form. "So." states a deep voice like grinding gravel. He looks completely inhuman, like some caricature of man and something else. "We have some insects here..." Instantly, a shield snaps out, crackling and whirling around Apocalypse as he crosses his arms. "And only one an Omega...?" Burning eyes shift to look at Nate, and the sneer of contempt... far too real. "Then the rest of you... have no place in my world..." Scott's head swivels back and forth as the environment shifts; he's already in the process of cataloguing ambush zones, cover points, and retreat paths by the time the ancient mutant slams down and forces Cyclops to focus his attention squarely on him--albeit through protectively crossed arms. "I want a mental link yesterday," he hisses before lowering his arms and taking a step back. "and then I'd like air support; we need to work together if we're going to have any chance of taking him down, but I still want to hit him from as many angles as we can. Take any cover that you can get, try to probe his shields, and most importantly: be careful." He does a quick take towards a bombed out apartment complex, but he'll wait until the link is established before making any moves to split off from the team. "Well that escalated fast." Cannonball nods to the mention of air support, and where once there was a man, his legs become a blur, embroiled in the kinetic propulsion that gave him his codename. He is a bright and swift distraction as he roars upwards, his back towards Apocalpyse as he banks up in an arc that matches the contour of the big bad's left shoulder. And then right as he's coming to the peak, he turns his body, and fires off a few energy blasts, yellow-orange in the dark, to test out the shields Apocalypse has on his wings. Nate's left eye flares with light when the Danger Room forms an all too familiar landscape around the small X-Men team. Then Apocalypse lands and speaks. It takes all he has not just to jump to try to rip his head off. It is just a simulation, he is shocked it affects him so strongly. "Oh right, this is exactly the kind of bullshit he would say." Mental link is not going to happen. Wrong telepath. It takes too much concentration for Nate to form one during a fight, and then he would be leaking his rage into all the other X-Men. Instead, he glares up, his body glowing gold with power. A hundred yards above one of the shattered skyscrapers get its top ten floors ripped off with a thunderous crunching sound, and several hundred tons of concrete, steel and glass plummet down at unnaturally high speed on Apocalypse. Undine's eyes widen a little as she looks up at the arriving Apocalypse. "Ok, starting to get why he's such a big deal." She doesn't flinch or run, though, until Scott says to take cover. Then, she turns and runs to crouch behind the wreck of a car. Then, she's looking around quickly, searching for a source of water. As the empty room transformed into a desolate wasteland the first thing to assault Logan's senses was the smell. War came with its own aroma. A combination of death, hot metal, smoke and with possible added dashes of scorched earth, burning flesh and any number of horrific scents. This simulation was all of them blended together. His blue eyes darted up to large buildings that served as towering reminders of what was, the future's ruins of yesteryear much like temples were in today's world. How the sky was scorched and changed. And all of the chaos was thanks to one being. As resistance fighters pushed onward Logan noticed the mixture of human and mutant. At least some good came of this hell. The two races had a common enemy and fear: Apocalypse and extinction. Logan pushed people ahead toward the buildings, "You heard him! Move it!" he screamed. In case anything happened he was going to bring up the rear. Advanced healing made the canucklehead a little more ideal to take and asess future technology's potential. "We need to know how to hit him!" Logan screamed at Nathan hoping he was heard. There is no water. None. The hydrants look centuries rusted. Beneath Undine's feet, she feels nothing but cracked, barren urban wastelands. The very sky is dry. It seems she might be at something of a disadvantage. But Apocalypse simply laughs. "A mental link? Nate cannot touch a mind without burning it to ash." growls Apocalypse. "Much like Stryfe, nothing but wasted potential. Inferior to the real thing. A star, who's bright life... shall be *extinguished*." As the massive rooftops are ripped up by Nate's concentration, Sam catches him off guard. The intense blast of energy shatters through the back of his shield, creating a hole; but the remainder only staggers the huge man, barely denting his form. "Oh?" Both arms extend, either shifting visibly into massive cannons. A great whirr is heard, before he aims one towards the incoming debris, and the other towards Sam. The world is alive with cerulean heat. The blastwave enough would threaten hapless Undine, a few cars and hunks of concrete sent whirling away. A massive eruption fills the sky, sending a smoking hail of plasma-scorched debris raining on the X-Men's team. That's probably not the help that Scott was hoping for. If the condensed beam were to hit Sam, he would find it to be incredibly potent; enough to blast through his energy field and injure him moderately, were it to hit true -- outside the potential to send him a few hundred meters away to crash into the back of a building. The shield behind is already closing from Sam's initial attack. "Pathetic insects!! Do you know who I am?!" Suddenly he begins to grow, muscles bulging in his form, teeth grit. In short order he's nearly twenty feet high, shield still crackling about. "I am APOCALYPSE. And I am your GOD. Kneel before me... and I'll merely send you to the breeding pits...!!" |"Communicators it is, then,"| Scott transmits over his as he runs, then dives towards that building to escape the storm of debris. |"Maintain constant contact--"| The X-Men's tactician rolls through his landing, comes up in a crouch and snaps his head in Apocalypse's direction. The sound of his visor opening is almost imperceptible, especially over the sounds of combat; the surge of ruby force that lances through that narrow aperture is accompanied by a piercing *ZZAAKT!* as it races towards what will likely wind up being the tyrant's leg or abdomen, given his growth spurt. As soon as the shot is fired, Scott retakes his feet and resumes running towards the complex, checking over his shoulder periodically until he's inside to see the results of his attack. |"--call for support if you need it. I'm going to look for another angle; Wolverine, what's your status? How do you feel about going for his eyes, if we can make a dent in his shields?"| He'd initially earmarked a third floor apartment overlooking Nur's landing site, but the size shift simplifies things somewhat; now, once he finds a stairwell, he'll be heading all the way to the top floor to try and get a clear shot at Apocalypse's head. Hopefully, the building will be able to go the next few minutes without collapsing on him. "His shield can be destroyed, but its repairing itself. We're going to have to fo-" Sam cuts out briefly, making an odd laughing sound when the blast from Apocalpyse comes a little too close for the jet engine's comfort. He's swinging down low, now, eyes scanning for Cyclops and Logan. "Focus. We need to hit him in the same place, Scott. Then let Logan through. Girl, can see the shield?" Since they'll be busy shooting and dodging, maybe the young x-men can do some visual for them. Nate is perfectly able to form a regular mind-link with a score people, thank you. Only he has not enough practice to keep it going one he begins fighting. Give him another year and he will do it fine. As Apocalypse blasts to dust his first attack, the young psion is already preparing another. He delays his attack a second only to shield those X-Men close by from the debris, not retreating an inch. Then he hits again. It doesn't matter the ancient tyrant is 20 feet tall and physically shielded, because Nate hits his mind with a hundred psionic spikes. The mental assault so intense than the others can see the razor-like golden blades, painful to look at, flying towards Apocalypse's mind. "God of nothing. DIE!" He roars. Well, there's water now. As the blastwave rolls out, Undine is just a blob of water that gets splashed back from the force, seemingly well-scattered. However, the water re-coalesces in moments and she's flowing forward again. Changing back into human form, her movement speeds up as she's running to find a new piace of cover. She looks up, though, and says through the comm, "Yeah, I can see the shield. Kind of hard to miss." Rushing out toward the shield thanks to Sam's comments Logan let out a growl. Two "shnkts!"cut through the sounds of the world. Cutting into the SHIELD with all the ferocity he could muster, Logan wasn't sure if this was useless or useful. Apocalypse wasn't like the usual threat. Most threats could have been taken out with simple attacks. Of course there was the occassional Juggernaut, who needed a little more finesse to be beaten. What Apocalypse needed was a true blue, tired and true, strategy. The concentrated fire idea was a good one. Logan just wasn't sure if adamantium would even do anything to the SHIELDS. Taunts and taunts. Apocalypse had always been good at them, and it seems he knows how to get under Nate's skin... which means that Cable himself certainly does. But then the psychic blast rips through, impacting Apocalypse dead-on. He reels, staggering backwards in two massive footsteps, having now grown to a more immense thirty feet. His shield warbles, allowing Scott's blast to pierce through and strike him in the knee, forcing the titan to take a knee. However, Nate would be surprised when suddenly there's a brutal, violent backlash of psionic energy, ripping into his mind with the very same force he attempted to use on Apocalypse. Only like a single hammer, attempting to drop him to the ground in pain. "Tch... you think... your petty mind can break MINE?!" A palm suddenly shifts open, and he roars while extending it at Nate. A twenty-foot path of scorched earth suddenly erupts, flying a few hundred yards. Stone and metal shatter and twist to naught, blowing out the middle of a distant skyscraper and sending it slowly crumbling to the ground, as if made of sand, ground reverberating heavily in it's wake. His telekinetic shield would not be enough to stop it completely... if underestimated, it might not be enough to prevent him from being killed. Undine has the advantage of being completely beneath his radar at the moment, although to what effect that can be used is another matter entirely. Logan rips into the shields without much hassle, and gradually forms a hole big enough he can leap through. But his attention right now is upon Sam. "Come to me, little one..." Abruptly, Sam would be surrounded by a telekinetic orb, that would explosively contract with hundreds of tons of force. The intent for this is to stop him -- long enough for a huge hand to shoot out and grasp the Cannonball. And the moment contact was made, something horrible would be felt... the Blast Shield being sucked away, drained from him like water from a popped balloon...! Cyclops has to stop his rapid ascent to brace himself when Apocalypse cuts loose on Nate; the building rattles around him and the ground wavers beneath him, and for several precarious moments, the man with the killer gaze holds his breath. If this is how he goes out - even in a simulation - he's going to be displeased with himself. Fortunately--the tumult stops after a few seconds, leaving Scott dusted with a fine coat of drywall, but otherwise unharmed. |"Is everyone alright after that last shot?"| he inquires before resuming his ascent. |"Undine--what's your status? How is the local water supply looking? Do you have enough to pressure him from where you are?"| He leaps over a couple broken steps, and after climbing a few more, he reaches the door to the top floor, which he bursts through with the help of a quick optic blast. |"Like Sam said: if we concentrate our fire, we should be able to keep him from reforming his shields--and maybe even throw him off-balance while he tries to compensate,"| he continues while racing down the hall. Just before hitting a junction, he breaks into the apartment on his left, pauses just long enough to find an Apocalypse-facing window, then dashes a few steps before sliding to a stop beside it. His breath catches for just a moment when he finally gets a fresh look at the situation outside; they've only just engaged him, and already, Apocalype has further devastated the field. |"Cannonball!"| he exclaims before fixing his gaze on Apocalypse and pressingtwo fingers to the side of his head. The delay between cause and effect will be a little longer this time, and the tyrant might even be able to see - or otherwise sense - the red light flaring in that apartment as Scott's mutant gift strains in its confinement. He can't afford to actually track his teammate's condition, now; the best that he can hope to do is cause enough of a distraction to save him. To that end: that building glow becomes a punishing ruby column broad enough to smash through the window and surrounding wall that he was ostensibly using as a sniper's roost when it bursts free of his visor to surge towards the tyrant's head; much like the beam itself, the sound accompanying it splits the hellish, simulated skies for a second as it goes. Cannonball might be fighting a losing battle, but there is one thing that Apocalypse is going to see before he dies...and that is...Sam Guthrie naked. His trained reaction to anything psychic is to put in the forward of his mind the image of himself buckass nude. Heck, Nate might even see it. Regardless of the way that he protects his mind, he strains with capable force, the blast field, his protection, seething and seeping around him, like flares off the sun, as the energy is sucked away and replaced, sucked away, and replaced. He tries to outmatch the pace of the drain, enough to survive the crushing force long enough. "Aaahhhhhhrrrrr!!!" he voices through gritted teeth. Nate almost grins when Apocalypse recoils from his psychic attack. It is not the first time he hits him, and he knows the ancient mutant won't be down with just an attack, his mind is like steel. But it is a start. Truth is Nate didn't expect the reflection, because Apocalypse was never able to do that when they fought last time. That he was (slightly) more vulnerable to telepathy than physical attacks was why in his home world he tried to kill all the telepaths. Getting his mental attack reflected forces Nate to the defensive, and his psychic shields almost shatter. And then Apocalypse blasts him, and he needs to dive out of the way, unable to form a telekinetic shield on time. "What the hell... freaking cheating old bastard..." it is, of course, Cable's fault. And Nate needs a few seconds to recover and try something else. Undine radios back, "No water anywhere. Unless it starts raining, don't think I can do much to get his attention. Don't know if he can hurt me if I go water, but don't think I can hurt him either." She lets go of the comm button and adds under her breath, "Please start raining." Slashing on the shield from the inside Logan tried to keep the it open. "FOCUS HERE!" he cried out so any energy based attack had a clear pathway to go. If Cable was going to cheat taken down others then Logan was going to do what he could to throw a monkey wrench into those plans. "Yes... feed me...!" Apocalypse growls, body beginning to shimmer and crackle from the force being sucked out of the trapped Cannonball. He actually does have a limit on what he can take, and is finding Sam to be reaching the maximum capacity alarmingly fast. Luckily, he was only using telekinesis; had he read his mind, the private shame that Sam carries hidden would have certainly defeated the tyrant. But then there's a sudden eruption from behind, En Sabah Nur widening his eyes. The blast rips a hole through the shield, and strikes the enlarged figure right in the face. This time he staggers sideways, but now has both hands around Sam in a mighty cage, still sapping at his energy enough to keep his power from breaking free. Logan's managed to use this direction to slip within, getting close to Apocalypse before the Mutant God growls. There is a huge dent, jaw dislocated, and the metal beneath burned where Cyclops struck. "...Enough." He'd then move to crush with both hands at once upon Sam while absorbing with all his power, body cracking and hissing as he risks overloading, before there's a massive explosion; roaring plasma surges in all directions, likely even knocking Logan to the ground and searing off a good portion of flesh and uniform. Hands smoking, he then moves to hurl Sam's body right at Scott, with surprising force. Of course he's not dead. At the terminal point, he is dropped out of the simulation, and in a whisk teleported to the observation room with Cable. The rest of the battle able to be seen. "So. Not going so well." he offers, rather blandly. "This Apocalypse is stronger than normal. I don't know why. I think he absorbed the essence of countless others as he fell into this timestream... and even the original." With a mighty roar, Apocalypse bears down his telekinesis on the staggered Nate, before a hammerfist drops upon him so hard the building that Scott inhabits shakes to the core. Again and again he punches, sundering the broken street, until it collapses into the sewers beneath. In a whirl, a massive cannon appears on his oversized chest, and a great blast of energy strikes point-blank. A great pillar of plasma roars two dozen stories high, and within the haze Apocalypse is still grinning. "You should have kneeled..." Nate appears in the room thereafter, but is obviously in no mood to do any talking and quickly leaves. "I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm cheating." offers Cable. "I'm going for the high end of what he can manage. If we can beat him at his worst, then best case, he's chump change..." Sam's body comes flying at him, and his first instinct is to take a few quick steps back before throwing his arms open to catch him. The impact takes Scott off of his feet, leaving him seated against a wall, cradling the incinerated remains of a former student. "Sam--!" he exclaims once he gets his breath back. He even goes as far as to press a couple fingers to the side of the young man's neck, briefly, only to gingerly lay him aside and retake his feet upon remembering that it's a waste of time. "Cable!" After a brisk glance around, he turns to face the spot where the control room is hidden, teeth bared in anger as glares at his unseen son. "Cable, what have you done?! This was meant to be a test--why on Earth would you--" Before he can finish yelling, he's again taken off of his feet, this time because the floor itself is buckling beneath him. He scrambles back to his feet quickly enough, but it only does so much good; the building is still collapsing around him. With nowhere else to run, he sprints towards the hole he's punched through the wall, even as the structure continues falling apart; by the time he reaches the increasingly fuzzy border between inside and out, he's riding a wave of tumbling debris more than he's running. Sam appears in the observation lounge in a ball, of course, not smooth and suave like he'd have liked to have been. "Next time..." he pants as he considers their actions, and then looks on as Apocalypse continues to level damage. "I should let him kill me...than feed him all that power." And he swallows, groaning as he tries to pick himself off the floor. Undine ducks for cover as Apocalypse explodes, transforming into water again as the shockwave and heat pass over her hiding place. Then, she's human again and running in. Apocalypse isn't paying her any attentio, and even as Nate is being knocked out she's running around, trying to approach Apocalypse from the side, vaulting over cars and dodging around debris with all her parkour skills. While he's distracted, all she's trying to do is get close, so she can try to slip in next time there's an opening in the shield, still following Scott's initial words. In her new position, though, she does report in, "I'm ready to go in." Logan felt his flesh furn down to muscle as Apocalypse had taken out two people. Two blows had done away with forty percent of his skin, mostly on the back and side, and taken away muscle. The smell was far from pleasant, "Seared, holdin' open the shield for someone to take a shot!" On that Undine was on the move, "Eyes on Udine." His blue eyes stayed on Undine, "Tell Cable I'm gonna stab him for this one. Somethin' ain't right. Apocalypse is good, but he ain't gonna cream us this badly." Sure Apocalypse was a monster. It didn't take a genius to figure out the deck was being stacked. Sam might be surprised when Scott seems to think that he's dead. Cable just puts a finger to his lips. 'Shh.' His left arm is still melded to the machine, overriding a few things through careful cyberpathy to make the illusion seem real. "*Shit. I lost control. I programmed him too well... Trying to shut the simulation down...!*" is broadcast to everyone inside. Worst of all, his tone sounds genuinely distressed and on the verge of panic, although Sam sees only a calm, dispassionate face. "Fools. You have been brought to my world. And it is here, you shall fall." Suddenly, Apocalypse tilts his head back, eyes closing. Multiple vents open upon his body, before a reckless number of cannons. The energy stolen from Sam roars through the circuits, the end of each blindingly bright. A few moments later, there's a bright flash. Two miles surrounding Apocalypse are gone in an instant, a bright flare into the sky. Leveling buildings, shattering infrastructure, creating a massive hole deep into the Earth. The remaining three would feel a brief second of shocked weightlessness... before the simulation ends. In a hiss, the room is back to normal, hundred yards by a hundred yards of tiles, leaving everyone but Sam within. "Just kidding. Nobody died." he states from the observation post. Yanking off his left arm in a sound like velcro, he then presses a button to descend from the control room down to the Danger Room proper. It might be a bad idea, if both Scott and Logan are angry at him... Sam's welcome to join, though, if he'd like. At least he's descending slow enough to make a speech "But that's life. Had this been real, you get no second chances. Maybe you felt for just a second the true hell of going against a tyrant like him. Feeling helpless and outmatched. Watching cherished friends fall. ...Do you want to know a secret?" "I wasn't cheating. When I first arrived, I attacked Apocalypse head on. He nearly killed both me and Jean together, before being cast away. He ate the /Phoenix Force/. I don't know why he's this powerful, but from my recordings, this is the worst case. Did you want the best? I can put in goddamn Darkseid if you'd prefer. Some people, brute force doesn't work on... but if everyone here had coordinated together, he was beatable." With a thunk, he arrives on the level. Not entirely sure what to expect, but it probably involves Wolverine trying to stab him. Left in the observation lounge, there's the sound of the PA system being grabbed and Sam's Kentucky drawl coming over the system. "I can tell you a /not/ secret. You're a dick." Sam stretches out his bruised shoulder and shuts the thing off, groaning on his own in private. "Cable!" Cyclops screams over the mad tyrant's taunts. "Shut it down, this instant--that's a direct order!" Grimacing, he rolls towards his side so that he can brace himself as he stands. Once he's on his feet, he takes a moment to cradle his ribs and transmit, He quickly looks around to try and get a glimpse of the watery girl, and once he does, he joins Logan in keeping an eye on her. Sharp jabs of pain shoot through the X-Man's body, doubling him over. With clenched teeth, he tries to focus past the aches and pains and shock and horror on getting his student out of here safely. <--if--> Whatever plan, whatever grand strategy he may have been about to unveil is washed away in a relentless white tide, as is the man himself--only to be replaced by outrage once those odd, weightless moments pass and the team is in the Danger Room again. He quickly looks around to make sure that everyone is accounted for, until Cable comes down and draws all of his attention. "Of all the arrogant--" he sputters before stopping himself to let Cable speak while he grinds his teeth. By about the halfway point, the tooth-gnashing stops and he lowers his head slightly, still frowning. By the end, having had enough time to think through things, the anger is more or less gone; he's still frowning, but it's more contemplative, now. If the shoe had been on the other foot, he very well might have done the same thing; that alone is enough to move him towards more constructive thoughts. "Understood," he mutters. "Next time, at least, we'll know how to deal with the shield immediately; that should help." Undine looks frustrated, it's likely on her file that she gets reckless and angry when scared, but she's been trained enough that she follows orders and starts to back off. Then the guns come out. Luckily, she can change *fast*, and as soon as she sees all those cannons she's water. So she's expecting to be turned to steam... an unpleasant condition, but if any telepaths are watching she's more scared for the others. (She can recover from being steam, after all, it just takes a while.) Then, though, the simulation ends. When it's revealed that nobody died, she changes back into human form and plops down with almost exhausted relief. Logan said nothing. He simply walked up to Cable. Punching Cable with the good arm. Glaring at Cable, "Next time you send us out there blind when ya know an answer...I'm usin' the claws. Run the kids or anyone else through this without warning them...I'm takin' yer arm then havin' yer Mom make ya think yer a three year old girl with a My Little Pony fandom," nothing was worse than making someone a cross between a little girl and Quinten Quire in Logan's mind. If the lesson to enforce how powerful Apocalypse was, it went a little overboard. Storming out of the room Logan just went back to his quarters to brood. The blow from Logan is taken without any attempt to evade. Probably bloodies Wolverine's knuckles, but the gesture was more of displeasure than anything else. After all, those claws would have been a bigger deal. He rubs his jaw, allowing Logan to leave. Enough beer and he'll get over it. The man he meant to show such to was Scott. "This was a wake-up call. Apocalypse is a man who has conquered this planet in multiple universes. And even if he dies, even if he's removed, once the bloated tick is cast off, the festering planet is still dead. He /might/ be this powerful. And I know he's powerful enough to take me down one on one. ...There's not a lot of people on this planet able to do that." Cable slowly cracks his neck to the side. "I left the program in the machine. You can use it all you like. But it doesn't play nice. As you saw, if Apocalypse grows bored or feels truly threatened, he doesn't mess around. He does not play with his food. He devours it. You, Cannonball, Channel, me, and Nate. That is the core team that has a good chance of occupying him enough that supporters like Logan can rip his metal guts out. But we don't have long. I'm not even sure if he's still where I think he is. ...If we want to try to kill him, it has to be soon." A finger then points to Undine. "And you need to find some kind of magic sponge of infinite water. Although in an ironic twist, you'd have been the only survivor." Cable exhales, stepping towards Scott and moving to clamp his shoulder with a metal hand. The reason seems odd at first, but in a flare of orange, he'll feel his bruises fade, scratches vanish, and cuts disappear. Being able to heal does make putting people in danger a little more acceptable. "Once we go all-in on Apocalypse, there's no backing out. He can block my teleportation. And if we find out he's as strong as I fear... then we need to be prepared. You did good. You didn't falter. Not until the very end. You're worthy of leading this team." He shifts to begin walking towards the door. "I'm not someone to look up to. Not like you. A battle is just statistics to me... I lost touch with the lives at hand. Too many believed my inspirations, and died for it, because I personally refused to give up against hopeless odds. Make sure you don't end up the same way." "Logan!" Scott exclaims as the feral X-Man takes a swing at his son. "Enough," he hisses towards the end of that string of threats. Since Wolverine is leaving, he doesn't press any further than that, but he does frown after the man; doing anything more would hurt too much. It's almost a guilty look, really; truth be told, he empathizes with Logan--to an extent. The problem is that Cable, for all his reducing of life or death to hard numbers, has a point too. "You were--nngh--very brave, Josie," he says, glancing towards his student after Cable gives her his notes. "I think that you just might have a chance at hitting him where it hurts; we'll just have to run through it until we get it down." Beat. "Cable's right, though; you should see if one of the scientists can whip up high capacity canteen of some kind for you. You should never enter a fight unarmed, if you can help it." He refocuses his attention on the psychic when his shoulder is touched, nodding here or there as he listens. A quiet, "Point taken," is the only response given to the advice. Undine looks up to Cable and then nods a little. She does smile at Cyclops' compliment, though, and says, "Thanks." Then she nods emphatically at the idea of the canteen and says, "That would be awesome. I'll ask, for sure." The last words given to Scott are simple. Although within his head. << X-Force is greenlit. Six members. Still more potential candidates. You do the public wars for powered rights. I'll do what I grew up learning to do... in the darkness. >> A slight smirk as he reaches the door, pausing. << If you want Stryker out of the picture, just let me know. I can manage it so he wouldn't be a martyr, either. Make it seem like he was in it all to swindle people out of money. Make a mob tear him apart. Defaced and deflated to the public... >> Cable laughs, then. Empty. << Just kidding. You'd never condone that. >> And then he's gone. The question, though... would his son? Perhaps it's best not to seek that answer. Category:Log